FRAMED

This is my latest creation for The Memory Nest using the below sketch.  I was inspired by the circle in the middle of the sketch, but decided to approach it differently for my layout.  My older daughter has become quite the scrooge about allowing me to take her picture.  If I try to take any snapshot of her, I'm met with her face buried in her arm and strong protesting...(The worst thing that could happen to an avid scrapping Mom is her daughter saying, "NO MORE PICTURES!)  Well, fortunately for me, her iCloud is hooked up to my iPhone.  And in a selfie photo shoot she took, I found this one using a circle mirror as a frame.  With the green of the mirror and the mischief she makes when I try to take her picture, I thought to myself, "Perfect St. Patrick's Day layout!"  I dipped into my stash of St. Patrick's Day papers and used my Cricut "Basic Shapes" cartridge to cut out the giant scalloped circle in the middle.  And voila; my favorite stink weed has been permanently "framed" in her Mom's scrapbook album!  

USA LAND THAT I LOVE

Good news!  Let's Scrap has invited me back to be a designer for another term!  I love this group of scrappers; so supportive and creative.  This was my submission for the design team call.  This sketch has wonderful ideas for secret compartments to add pictures, journaling, ephemera from a trip.  However, for this sketch, I decided to go simple and highlighted my daughter's 8th grade trip to Washington DC.  I teach 8th grade at my daughter's school, so I got to go as well.  Let me tell you, one has not lived until they have navigated a group of ninety fourteen years olds, including your sassy daughter, through a major city.  The trip was not without its hangups, but overall, we had a great time.  I used Doodlebug's Patriotic Parade and Patriotic Picnic papers to accent the pictures.  And since this layout was all about the US capital, I tried to recreate the feel of an American flag when placing my pictures and papers on this layout.

HER LOVES

This is my latest creation for Sketches in Thyme.  I've said a gazillion times that I'm a seasonal scrapbooker.  And in the spirit of Valentine's Day, I went full out hearts for this creation.  I don't take a lot of pictures of my girls on Valentine's Day, but what I decided to focus on for this layout are my younger daughter's favorite things in the whole wide world.  She loves the beach, the Ohio State Buckeyes & her best friend, her dog, Speedway Speedy Freezes, soccer, and wrapping presents. So that is what this layout is all about; the things in life that make her the happiest.  To play up the love theme, I used Pink Paislee's "Bella Rouge" collection throughout this project.

FRANCE TRIP

This is my final creation for this term for Let's Scrap using the below sketch.  For this sketch, I decided to do something I hardly ever do; I scrapped me.  This is pre-children, pre-marriage Stephanie.  During my second year teaching, I had the opportunity to travel to France & Spain with the school I worked for at the time.  It was an experience of a lifetime.  And since this was in 1998, I neither had a digital camera nor scrapbooked like I do now.  Long story short, I didn't take as many pictures as I wish I would have.  When the terrorist attack happened in November, I was looking through my travel album and realized that the pages were becoming yellow.  That was my cue; get the pictures out of there immediately AND scrap them!  To play up the "France" theme of layout, I used Carta Bella's "Amour" collection to accent the pictures.

JACKPOT

In my attempt to be more organized, I made a big mistake....So, THIS is my actual layout for this week's actual sketch for The Memory Nest!  For those of you following The Memory Nest, you probably thought to yourself, "What on Earth did Stephanie's layout have to do with this sketch?"  Well, it didn't....sneak peak for the next sketch!  Anyway, I had been plotting this design for weeks, I just didn't have it done in the right order...When I saw this sketch, I was inspired by the ticket.  My daughter had her ninth birthday party at a local bowling alley with an arcade.  As fate would have it, she hit the jackpot in arcade tickets playing a game.  Like 1000 tickets jackpot...In little girl world, that's like winning $1000 in Las Vegas!  She had so much fun picking out "treasures" at the redemption center.  (Although it took them forever to count out her tickets and the mass of tickets coming out of the machine almost tripped her father...)   She still talks about the birthday party where she hit the jackpot!

BEST DAY

This is my latest double page layout for Let's Scrap using the below sketch.  My daughter's birthday is right around the corner and in my true seasonal scrapbooking form, I decided her birthday celebration from last year would be the perfect subject matter for this sketch.  For the design, I took a few liberties with the picture placement, but overall I followed the directions closely.  And in true Stephanie form, I found in my stash a variety of papers from different Crate Paper lines that I had purchased last year and forgot I had bought...) Anyway, with the party hats from the Confetti line and cute love prints from the Kiss Collection, I felt everything came together perfectly with this design.

YOU GOT SERVED

This is my latest page for The Memory Nest using the following sketch.  When I saw the design, my brain started thinking of all the pictures I've taken over the years showing a process happening.  And then it struck...volleyball!  This is my daughter's second year playing competitive volleyball, and with each game, her serve kept getting stronger.  I happened to snap pictures of her in each stage of serving, and decided to feature the process in this layout.  I took a few liberties with the sketch such as changing the positioning of the middle arrow and adding a few more circles, but overall, I liked how the layout "flows" showing the various steps of the volleyball overhand serve.